Even tonight

[Neddy]

It stood out a mile we need a big target man to play alongside whe ever.

[cibasteve]

It was a pre season friendly Neddy, a striker like say ermmmm.. Windass or Cooke who didn't play cos it was a pre season game and didn't need to play.
Had it been a FA cup 1st round game do you really think we'd have only won 1-0??

[Barmy]

Their keeper did well int 2nd half to keep it at 1-0 aswell.

[Barmy]

You cant read too much into pre-season games anyway, specially the 1st game.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

What was the starting 11 anybody???

[Barmy]

gk - howarth
lb - richardson
cb - holloway
cb - ellis
rb - ?
lm - morrison
cm - kearney
cm - crooks
rm - muirhead
st - sanasy
st - cadders

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Cheers mate

[Barmy]

no probs. no idea who the right back was tho.

[tony d]

So a fair result with that team in a pre season match...

Questions..

How was Howarth, Kearney and Cadders..

[Barmy]

Howarth didnt really have much to do. Kearney looked ok to say it were his first game for a long time. Didnt see much of Cadders from where i were sat tho.

[Neddy]

Cibasteve
All of city strikers are the same all play the second striker role and do not lead the line well.In my opinion if we do not sign a strong big and good in the air target man we will struggle.

[cibasteve]

Well don't tell me mate, get a letter wrote to Colin Todd. I'm sure he'll listen to your valued comments.
Also you could have a word with Julian and give him some tips on how this big, lead the line forward will be paid out of the club budget.
Or perhaps Junior is still around the club waiting to be signed as he's been around for a while now!

[Barmy]

Whats wrong with Cooke been the 'target man' ?

IMO he could do the job.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Barmy, of all your 1429 posts that is by far the best.

[cibasteve]

Well law of averages say it would happen some time or other.

[wykie]

Whats wrong with Cooke been the 'target man' ?

IMO he could do the job.

I'd love to take a snipers rifle at that target.

[Barmy]

Lol, cheers.

Why all the talk of signing a new target man when we already have a player here that could do the job well, and why he was brought to the club by CT to do that job.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Well law of averages say it would happen some time or other.

:D

[Barmy]

Well law of averages say it would happen some time or other.
Lol, very good steve. :D

[cibasteve]

Lol, very good steve. :D

Well I thought it was to.

[Dbantx]

Fairly satisfied with the result but IMO we do need a big strong targetman.

I think signing Cadamarteri instead of one may turn out to be a mistake on Todds part but only time will tell.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

I agree Dbantx although i think Cooke is more than capable of playing that role. We do really lack height up-front at the moment which could prove to be a problem later in the season, however i think todd is going for a different style of play this time which may not include a "target-man"

[emj]

Radio L666s said during the week that after the capture of the lad from boro(cant remember his name)Todd may have something left in his budget and is looking at another striker.BTW..Bentham at R/B last night.

[Bantamtim]

I still don't understand why everyone says we need a target man. Cooke is a perfectly good one - he wins the ball in the air a lot, holds the ball up well, brings others into the game, creates space for the second striker, works hard and scores a few goals. What else do you want from a target man?

[Neddy]

Cooke is the nearest we have to a target man however i disagree he wins next to nothing in the air.he does work hard and can play with his back to goal however i feel in this league we need a bigger and stronger target man who is god in the air.

[Ed]

Wins next to nothing? did you not attend any of the home games from the point he joined? He was better than Dele in my opinion.

He worked hard for the team and he always gave 100% even when he wasnt playing great he never gave up and showed he wanted to play for us.

I'd have cooke over Dele any day ...

[briggus]

Ed - I think we are talking about two styles of striker here. I think Cooke is good for the team and a busy player willing to work his socks off. However I think he needs to find the back of the net more often and provide more assists. Who knows this season he will hopefully do that. He is however for me a Windass type of player and x 2 in the same team is not always the answer.
Dele on the other hand - gave the impression he was on a Sunday stroll - but his height caused a lot more of a problem - and his pace was deceiving - he for me worried defenders more from dead balls / crosses - this produced more openings for other city players. He could have been better in the air and hit the net more - but what we should remember - he was comimg back from a bad injury and we had little time to see his best. He seemed to do OK in the league above for Coventry. Adams at Coventry renewed his contract which says he must have been producing the goods. For me finding a player like Dele is more difficult than finding one like Cooke.

Sitting on the fence I would take both - if asked to make a choice - Dele - based on last season. As we know this game is about our opinions at the end of the day we have to support the players Todd decides he wants/can get hold of.

[Ed]

Please remember about Cooke that he had come from a league that wasnt as physical and needed time too adapt. The last few games I saw Cooke in he looked a real threat and defenders looked scared of him, not in the same bracket as Windass last season but they were scared of him and his height.

Cooke showed more fight and desire than Dele did and Cooke actually looks like he wants to be at VP were as Dele was here to get him back in the shop window and back in the coventry managers eye and nothing else.

[Barmy]

Cooke is more than capable of playin the 'target man' role for us this season IMO.

[Superfatbantam]

Tend to agree that Cooke can play target man role, but we are or had been playing a style which didn't rely on bombing wingers getting to the by-line and whipping them in for a Mills type at the back post. As I saw it we played a more attacking midfield play where the wingers (Morsrison, Murihead, MBW et al) were coming inside and attacking the full backs on their (supposedly) weaker side. A target man like Dele would be wasted except to gather long hoofs from defence. I get the impression Todd is working on a system where we build it up from the back and attack as a unit. Cooke did well enough for me on being a hold-up man, take it down with your back to goal and play it back to your playmakers in midfield, kind of a la Ashley Ward. Hey there's a thought - is he retired yet? ;)

In any event our wingers don't fill me with the confidence they should that they can get to the byline, let alone put a decent cross in for your 6'5 man. Mind I haven't seen Petta yet. I'm quite happy with the strikers we have got except that one of them is a little injury prone!